Iowa state education officials to weigh in on school boundaries

The Iowa Department of Education plans to issue guidance to school districts that use free and reduced-price meal data to help determine school attendance boundaries, Jeff Berger, the department’s deputy director, says.

The move comes in the wake of a heated discussion this week between the Southeast Polk school board and a demographic consultant over the use of numbers from the federal meals program to redraw the district’s elementary school boundaries.

In addition, Johnston and Iowa City school officials discussed free and reduced-price meal data as they decided school boundaries.